When was the hydraulic press invented?

A hydraulic press is a machine press using a hydraulic cylinder to generate a compressive force.[1] It uses the hydraulic equivalent of a mechanical lever, and was also known as a Bramah press after the inventor, Joseph Bramah, of England.[2] He invented and was issued a patent on this press in . As Bramah (who is also known for his development of the flush toilet) installed toilets, he studied the existing literature on the motion of fluids and put this knowledge into the development of the press.[3]

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Main principle

The hydraulic press depends on Pascal's principle. The pressure throughout a closed system is constant. One part of the system is a piston acting as a pump, with a modest mechanical force acting on a small cross-sectional area; the other part is a piston with a larger area which generates a correspondingly large mechanical force. Only small-diameter tubing (which more easily resists pressure) is needed if the pump is separated from the press cylinder.

Application

Hydraulic presses are commonly used for assembly and disassembly of tightly-fitting components. In manufacturing, they are used for forging, clinching, molding, blanking, punching, deep drawing, and metal forming operations. Hydraulic presses are also used for stretch forming, rubber pad forming, and powder compacting.[4][5] The hydraulic press is advantageous in manufacturing, it gives the ability to create more intricate shapes and can be economical with materials.[6] A hydraulic press will take up less space compared to a mechanical press of the same capability.[7]

In geology a tungsten carbide coated hydraulic press is used in the rock crushing stage of preparing samples for geochemical analyses in topics such as understanding the origins of volcanism.[8]

In popular culture

The room featured in Fermat's Room has a design similar to that of a hydraulic press.[9] Boris Artzybasheff also created a drawing of a hydraulic press, in which the press was created out of the shape of a robot.

In , the Hydraulic Press Channel, a YouTube channel dedicated to crushing objects with a hydraulic press, was created by Lauri Vuohensilta, a factory owner from Tampere, Finland.[10] The Hydraulic Press Channel has since grown to over 9 million subscribers on YouTube. There are numerous other YouTube channels that publish videos involving hydraulic presses that are tasked with crushing many different items, such as bowling balls, soda cans, plastic toys, and metal tools.

A hydraulic press features prominently in the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb".

See also

• Universal testing machine

References

Today I&#;d like to discuss Hydraulic presses. Yes, I know a broad subject so we are going to take it down to the basics give you a layman&#;s description, and give you a little history. After searching the web and showing my findings to my techs the most basic description of a Hydraulic press which is a machine tool used in the manufacturing industry was found on wiseGeek.com here it is:

&#;A hydraulic press is a mechanical machine used for lifting or compressing large items. The force is generated through the use of hydraulics to increase the power of a standard mechanical level. This type of machine is typically found in a manufacturing environment&#;

To fully understand the description you must understand the definition of &#;hydraulics&#; here it is:

the branch of science and technology concerned with the conveyance of liquids through pipes and channels, esp. as a source of mechanical force or control.

(Definition from Webster&#;s dictionary)

A good description of &#;hydraulic systems&#; and Pascal&#;s Law which is what hydraulics is based on can be found on NASA&#;s website I have copied it below:

 Hydraulic systems use a incompressible fluid, such as oil or water, to transmit forces from one location to another within the fluid.  

Pascal&#;s law states that when there is an increase in pressure at any point in a confined fluid, there is an equal increase at every other point in the container.

So basically a hydraulic press uses liquids as its force. The individual who is credited with inventing the first hydraulic press is Joseph Bramah. He applied and received his patent in for the Bramah Hydraulic Press. The technology of &#;hydraulics&#; and the use of them in a &#;machine Tool&#; atmosphere in those times was a science that was almost unheard of. Bramahs principles are used to this day in the machine tool industry concerning hydraulics. Thanks to Bramahs invention a completely new class of machine tools was developed over the next 50 years.

Bramah was a very resourceful individual and worked as a farmer, carpenter, and locksmith. But his love was inventing and improving on the designs of other inventions. He invented a lock called the &#;Bramah Lock&#; and was the owner and operator of &#;the Bramah Lock Company&#; The lock he developed was the undisputed safest lock at that time and held that record for 67 years. He also improved upon the design of the modern-day toilet and obtained the patent for it in .

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It was the success of his lock company and his continuing love of invention that Joseph Bramah began to delve in the building of machine tools. His locks had a lot of precision work and Bramah knew in order to mass produce he would have to invent something to help. In his employ at the lock company was a young man named  Henry Maudslay; between the two of them, they created several machines that would make building locks much more efficient.  It was with Henry&#;s help that Bramah became successful in many ventures that produced a plethora of machinery. Some other inventions by Bramah and his sidekick Henry Maudsley were as follows:

Beer engine

Bramah lock

Planing Machine

Papermaking machine

A machine to print bank notes automatically with sequential numbers

Fountain Pen

Hydrostatic press for uprooting trees

Bramah also held patents for the first extrusion process for making lead pipes and another for making gun stocks (patent ). Also noted in several resources was Bramah&#;s insistence on quality control; he understood by machining to close tolerances machines especially engines ran better. He taught this to Arthur Woolf a Cornish steam engineer. With Bramah&#;s guidance Woolf&#;s engines ran with high pressure steam which greatly increased their output. Woolf&#;s designs were soon used by all engineer designers of that time period. Some would consider Bramah the &#;father of quality control&#;.

Resources:

Encyclopedia Britanica

www.Wikipedia.com

www.Militaryarchitecture.com

www.wiseGeek.com

www.merriam-webster.com

Blackmore, H. (). &#;A Dictionary of London Gunmakers&#; p59

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